Darren Shan acquired a loyal fan base in primary schools with his 12-book cycle The Saga of Darren Shan. Demon Thief is the second volume in his new series for older readers, The Demonata, which began with Lord Loss.Kernel Fleck, 14, bald since birth, feels like a freak and lives a lonely life with his parents and baby brother, Art. He has always seen patches of light no one else can see. When a demon steps out of one of these patches, slaughters the village schoolchildren and disappears with baby Art, Kernel pursues him into the demon universe.The violence in Demon Thief is graphic but playful. Shan's demonfighters spend so much time keeping their balance on the squashed entrails of dismembered monsters that you'd think the author would have given them special boots. Young teenage boys will love it, and slither delightfully with the hero in bucketloads of "blood, mucous and all sorts of slime", like kids on CBeebies wallowing in Day-Glo gunk.